Mercosur tells EU your immigration law is unfair, we were generous when European migrant workers were traveling to South America to find jobs.
Mercosur, the South American trading association, has condemned the European Union's new immigration rules. Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez calls the measures, which will come into force in 2010, inadmissible. Her Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, said they were "barbaric".
The EU wants to be able to detain illegal immigrants for up to 18 months before deporting them. The rules could have consequences for many of the hundreds of thousands of South Americans who have travelled to Europe in recent years to find work. The Mercosur countries point out that they were extremely generous in accepting European immigrants in the previous century.
At a two-day summit in the Argentinian city of Tucumán, the Mercosur members also discussed the worldwide food crisis and called for an increase in food production, saying that this could represent an enormous economic stimulus to the region.
Mercosur has five full members - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - and five associate members: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Source: By Radio Netherlands, Copyright
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